OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

How Much Should an OS Vendor Own?

David Adams 2011-12-13 Editorial 51 Comments

I was reading today about how Linux Mint developers altered the Banshee music player source code to redirect affiliate revenue from Amazon music orders to them instead of Banshee. They've reportedly made less than $4, which has caused a kerfluffle among those paying attention to that corner of the world. But it raises a larger point that has been swirling around for a couple of decades: an OS vendor has a lot of power to influence, and even monetize their user base. Where should they draw the line?

Submitted by sjvn 2011-12-13 Editorial 34 Comments

The more I look at what HP has had to say about webOS; the more I think the project's as dead as a doornail.

HP Leaves webOS Wounded, Not Even Dead

Submitted by Ron Miller 2011-12-13 Editorial 8 Comments

When HP announced it was releasing webOS to open source on Friday afternoon, it surely didn't kill it, but it left the operating system badly wounded with few prospects for success.

Submitted by estherschindler 2011-12-13 Geek stuff 24 Comments

Carol Pinchefsky contemplates commercial skipping DVRs, and other tales of really good technology that vanished, in 7 Awesome Bits of Tech That Just Freakin' Disappeared. As Pinchefsky writes: "...It got me thinking about awesome technology that we somehow ditched. The airship? Awesome. Slide rules? Awesome awesome. Mir Space Station? Boss-level awesome. And now just thinking about wristwatches with calculators makes me suffer a sense of short-term nostalgia (as in Douglas Coupland's Generation X). Here are some of the coolest features and products that we’ve lost along the way to 2012.

8 Best Free ASCII Linux Games

Submitted by James Collett 2011-12-13 Games 8 Comments

The idiom 'don't judge a book by its cover' can be extended to 'don't judge a computer game by its graphics'. Whilst the games featured in this article have extremely basic graphics, they have many redeeming qualities beyond evoking fond memories of the early days of computer gaming. Text-based games are often forgotten and neglected in the Linux press. However, there are some real ASCII gems out there waiting to be explored which are immensely addictive and great fun to play.

Submitted by lucas_maximus 2011-12-11 Internet 25 Comments

Google Chrome offers more protection against online attacks than any other mainstream browser, according to an evaluation that compares exploit mitigations, malicious link detection, and other safety features offered in Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.

Submitted by rhyder 2011-12-11 Linux 66 Comments

It's starting to look like the end of an era for Ubuntu users as Canonical mull the creation of an ISO that won't fit onto a CDR. The question is, does it matter? Canonical owes at least part of its success with Ubuntu Linux to the unique way that it has been distributed. From the start it has been available as a downloadable ISO image and a free CD, posted at no cost to the user. This was great news for people who wanted to install Linux but did not have the luxury of a decent Internet connection. In a sense, installing via a CDR image has always been like a kind of cache, in that you're moving part of the content that you need onto permanent storage rather than pulling it through the network connection

Guest post by snydeq 2011-12-11 General Development 50 Comments

Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister writes in favor of new programming languages given the difficulty of upgrading existing, popular languages. 'Whenever a new programming language is announced, a certain segment of the developer population always rolls its eyes and groans that we have quite enough to choose from already,' McAllister writes. 'But once a language reaches a certain tipping point of popularity, overhauling it to include support for new features, paradigms, and patterns is easier said than done.' PHP 6, Perl 6, Python 3, ECMAScript 4 -- 'the lesson from all of these examples is clear: Programming languages move slowly, and the more popular a language is, the slower it moves. It is far, far easier to create a new language from whole cloth than it is to convince the existing user base of a popular language to accept radical changes.'

Submitted by Valhalla 2011-12-10 Apple 47 Comments

Just when I thought the company I once admired greatly couldn't sink any lower. "Over the last two years, Apple has been engaged in vicious legal battles over smartphone patents, many of which are aimed at squelching (or squeezing money out of) manufacturers of devices running Android. And now, for some reason, it has given valuable patents to a patent troll - which is using them to sue many of the top technology companies in the world."

The CrunchPad is Proof the iPad was Obvious

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Wireless 121 Comments

The CrunchPad (and its eventual consumer incarnation the JooJoo) is often presented as proof of obviousness in the iPad's design. For the first time, we have an interesting insider view on this matter - Nik Cubrilovic was involved with Micheal Arrington's CrunchPad project from the very beginning, and has written a lengthy blog post about how the CrunchPad really is proof the iPad's design was obvious.

Apple Using Patents to Undermine Open Standards Again

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Internet 51 Comments

Think companies only use patents to block competition? Heck no, they apparently also use them to hinder the w3c standards process. As Opera's Haavard details, Apple is yet again using patents (or even just patent applications) to hinder or block the development of open standards. Sickening.

Apple Has a Bad Legal Day

Submitted by Julian 2011-12-09 Legal 8 Comments

Not a good day for Apple. First, the Australian court has lifted the Australian sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Second the Motorola has won an injunction against Apple's 3G products in Germany. What else is there to say at this point? Software and design patents still suck, even if karma is a female dog.

Clinton Urges Countries Not to Stifle Online Voices

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Internet 16 Comments

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other international leaders urged countries and private businesses on Thursday to fight increasing efforts to restrict access to the Internet by repressive governments and even some democratic ones. Opening a two-day conference on digital freedom here sponsored by Google and the Dutch government, Mrs. Clinton warned that restrictions on the Internet threatened not only basic freedoms and human rights, but also international commerce and the free flow of information that increasingly makes it possible." Uhm, Mrs. Clinton... SOPA...?

webOS To Be Released as Open Source

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Wireless 54 Comments

Heck yes. This is one fine way to toast the weekend, ain't it? HP has just announced it's going to release webOS under an open source license. While the company will cease making hardware for the platform for now, it will continue development on it together with the open source community. Hey Access, you listening? Update: More good news: HP's CEO just told The Verge that HP will be putting webOS on hardware after all - tablets!

Android: A Visual History

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-09 Google 9 Comments

"Google's Android operating system has undergone a pretty incredible metamorphosis in the three short years since it debuted on the T-Mobile G1. Think about it: three years, eight major releases. Eight. To put that in perspective, there have only been ten major consumer-grade releases of Windows (give or take, depending on how you count) in over twenty-five years of retail availability. You could make a pretty convincing argument that no consumer technology in history has evolved as quickly as the smartphone, and Android has been at the very center of that evolution. With the release of Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich - on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, we wanted to take a look back through the years at how Andy Rubin's brainchild has evolved into the industry titan that it is today. What's changed? What has (sometimes stubbornly) stayed the same?" Fantastic article.

What Eric Schmidt Actually Said

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-08 Rumors 64 Comments

So, Marco Arment, John Gruber, and MG Siegler (has anyone ever seen them in the same room?) all jumped on a quote from Eric Schmidt which was supposedly very arrogant and proves Schmidt knows no developer likes Android. The joke's on them, though, since none of them actually bothered to watch the source video to verify Schmidt was quoted properly. As it turns out, he was not, as Julian Yap notes. Update: Arment, Siegler, and Gruber have posted updates.

Haiku Video Tutorial

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-07 Haiku 40 Comments

"So... I have finally gotten around to finishing the Haiku tutorial I set out to complete over a year ago. I was hoping to have it done sooner, but I decided to then prolong graduation for another year. However, my thesis project has been a rocking success, and you can finally see the fruits of my labors. This production should be incorporated into the project as official tutorial material." Okay so yeah it's a tad bit cheesy, but heck, it's BeOS, so shut up.

Apple Loses iPad Trademark Case in China

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-07 Apple 31 Comments

"Apple could face disruption to its iPad sales in China after a court rejected its claim to own the iPad trademark in the country and a rival sought to halt sales of the tablet device in two Chinese cities. The developments are the latest in a long-running dispute between Apple and Proview Technology (Shenzhen), a struggling Taiwanese-owned company that registered trademarks for the name IPAD in many countries long before Apple conceived its smash hit tablet computer." Apple is clearly copying from this innovative Chinese company. If Apple fanatics are actually consistent (*), they would condemn Apple for this clear case of theft.

Oblivious Supreme Court Poised to Legalize Medical Patents

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-07 Legal 8 Comments

"The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that raises a fundamental question: whether a physician can infringe a patent merely by using scientific research to inform her treatment decisions. Unfortunately, this issue was barely mentioned in Wednesday's arguments. A number of influential organizations had filed briefs warning of the dire consequences of allowing medical patents, but their arguments were largely ignored in the courtroom. Instead, everyone seemed to agree that medical patents were legal in general, and focused on the narrow question of whether the specific patent in the case was overly broad." One day, American policy makers are going to wake up and realise they've made their country irrelevant. The amount of stupidity American policy makers exhibit never ceases to amaze me.

Microsoft Details Windows Store

Thom Holwerda 2011-12-07 Windows 37 Comments

Yesterday, Microsoft finally unveiled all the details regarding its Windows Store, which will be the default way to distribute Metro applications on Windows 8. Most of the details are all pretty standard and mirror those of other stores, but there's one interesting twist that is sure to make a lot of you happy: Microsoft has made special exceptions for open source software.